‘BJP govt that succeeded mine didn’t take up Sonsoddo issue’

Times of India | 3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:49 am

Margao: Margao MLA Digambar Kamat on Thursday chose to lay blame on the BJP government that came to office after the end of his chief minister’s tenure in 2012 for letting the Sonsoddo sore fester and assume hard-to-manage proportions.“When I was the chief minister, I floated a tender for Rs 7.5 crore to set up a waste treatment plant to clean up Sonsoddo. The plant was also set up. But later my tenure came to an end in 2012. The government that succeeded mine didn’t take up the project as vigorously as was desired,” Kamat told reporters. As the municipality failed to pay the dues of the concessionaire (of the project), they quit and went for arbitration, Kamat said. “Sonsoddo is not a recent (phenomenon). It’s been there before I was a councillor. When I became an MLA and minister I took up the task of it cleaning up,” Kamat said.The former chief minister said that now that the Margao municipality was under his sway again the Sonsoddo project will be back on track. He accused his detractors of criticising him and the municipality “without knowing the history of Sonsoddo”.“Margao municipality is now under my control…I am paying personal attention to the Sonsoddo issue,” Kamat said. Kamat along with officials of Goa Waste Management Corporation visited Sonsoddo last week and announced that he will have a fortnightly review of the work.“Unless somebody monitors the issue, it will not be possible to resolve it. As solid waste management corporation is the nodal agency, it will monitor the progress every 15 days, and see whether the decisions have been implemented or not, and plan for the next 15 days,” he said.

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Govt aims to hand over 10,000 forest land titles within 24 months: Sawant

Times of India | 3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:40 am

Times of India

3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:40 am

Panaji: The government has set a target of handing over 10,000 sanads to claimants of both individual and community rights category within 18 to 24 months, said chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday. Sawant handed over land title documents (sanads) for forest land under occupation to 41 beneficiaries under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.Sawant said that the government was working on a fast-track mode to hand over land titles to rightful claimants of forest land under the Act, including to those communities that are not scheduled tribes. “In the next 18 to 24 months, all the claims can be settled if they are processed in a fast-track manner,” said Sawant, while indirectly blaming the ST community for not being united.“Most of the delays were because of the gram sabha where the community was not coming to vouch for the others. There was a mentality where if one person receives the sanad, he stops going for the gram sabha meetings to support the claims of the others. This mentality is not good,” said Sawant.The chief minister also said that therw were instances of property disputes between the beneficiaries of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. “People from the community are now blocking traditional footpaths and roads claiming that it is their property. People need to support each other,” said Sawant.He distributed the land title documents by handing over sanad certificates to the tribal beneficiaries on the 147th birth anniversary of Indian tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda.“There are people from other communities also from Sattari who are residing in the forests, and under the Forest Act, we also plan to give them sanads. Today, those whose sanads were ready, around 41 of them, got them,” said Sawant.Forest dwellers had filed 10,136 applications under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, of which 9,758 are individual claims, while 378 are community claims. Till date around 2,500 sanads have been handed over to beneficiaries.“It is unfortunate that even after so many years since Liberation, we still need to fight, protest and come on the roads to fight for status and benefits for the tribals, for forest rights,” said speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar.CM gives clean chit to civil supplies deptChief minister Pramod Sawant gave a clean chit to the civil supplies department in the pilferage of food grains from government godowns, blaming the fair price shops for selling wheat and rice to traders in Hubbali. “I called up the director of civil supplies, and after they took a tally, they said that their quota is still there. So the civil supplies is not directly involved. It is the fair price shops that are selling their quota. It is not the department’s fault,” said Sawant.

Act to recover pilfered funds: Xeldem temple’s ex-president

Times of India | 3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:24 am

Times of India

3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:24 am

Margao: The failure of the authorities concerned in taking action for recovery of funds found to have been misappropriated by the earlier managing committee of Shree Santeri Gramdevi Devalaya, Xeldem, as directed by the high court in its judgement of April 2021, has prompted the petitioner in the case and former president of the temple, Prakash Dessai, to suspect that the perpetrators of the crime are being protected by the powers that be. Dessai, on Wednesday, chose to address reporters at Azad Maidan, Panaji, to question what prompted the authorities concerned to ignore the court’s order and fail to take steps for recover the funds, amounting to Rs 18 lakh. Dessai said his petitions to the chief minister, governor, DGP, IGP and others have been ignored. “Whom is the home minister trying to protect?” he questioned. Dessai said that inaction of the the mamlatdar, who is the administrator of devalayas, despite the high court order, smacked of political interference. Further, he has demanded immediate action by the authorities failing which he has warned of “taking recourse to further action” to seek justice. “The funds belong to the mahajans who run the affairs of the temple located in a remote area despite many financial constraints,” Dessai said.

Body of 21-year-old recovered

Times of India | 3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:04 am

Times of India

3 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 04:04 am

Margao: Margao town police on Thursday recovered the body of Akhtar Raza, 21, in a semi-decomposed condition near a canal at St Jose de Areal. Raza, a resident of Dicarpale, was missing from his house since Sunday night, police sources said.A case of murder was booked by the police under provisions of the Indian Penal Code against unknown accused. Raza was a fish vendor and his sudden disappearance and subsequent death has baffled the police. Police said that the postmortem examination of the body will reveal the cause of death.

After agonising wait, Fatorda pool to get a new lease of life

Times of India | 5 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 02:23 am

Times of India

5 hours ago | 18-11-2022 | 02:23 am

Panaji: For a long time, the swimming fraternity in Goa has been deprived of basic facilities where they could train and prepare for national championships. Even those who swim for leisure were left without any place for their regular activity. The state-run swimming pool at Campal and then Peddem sports complex took agonisingly long to be refurbished, but there was no such luck with the pool at Fatorda, lying in ruins since being closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, there are reasons to be optimistic. The Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) has started work at the swimming pool in Fatorda. The pipelines, wherever needed, will be replaced, new tiles, filtration tanks and plants will also be installed. "We want the best work to be done by the end of January,” said Deepak Lotlikar, executive engineer at SAG. “The files are cleared, work has started. We are making the pool as good as the one at Campal. The pool was getting outdated. With work such as new tanks, sand, pipelines, fitting of tiles, there will be no complaints in the future." The swimming pool at Fatorda became operational in 1997. Without much maintenance work, the pool was crying for repairs: the operating systems were outdated, pipeline corroded and the less said the better about the structure. "I was running from pillar to post but nothing moved for a long time,” said Goa Swimming Association secretary Sudesh Nagvekar. “SAG officials didn't answer my phone calls, knowing I would ask them ugly questions about the Fatorda pool. We were always told that tenders have been floated, files sent for approval and forwarded to the concerned departments. The answers were bureaucratic. The work has now started, so let’s wait and watch.” According to Nagvekar, Margao has not produced any swimmer in the last 10 years due to regular coaching classes, popularly known as RCC, being stopped a few years ago. "The water quality was bad, as a result of which the swimmers were getting rashes. The pool was in a dilapidated state, the filtration process was not at optimum level. Who will send their kids to swim in such a pool? The RCC scheme had to be stopped and it killed the interest of people in Margao and nearby areas," said Nagvekar. Even with all those obstacles, a few enthusiasts and a group of senior citizens continued swimming till the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to all sporting activities. "I had to go all the way to Ponda for swimming after the Fatorda pool was closed. We had a group of 30 senior citizens who swam here regularly," said 58-year-old Angelo Barreto from Curtorim. For more than two and half years, the pool was closed to public. According to Lotlikar, the facility will now be thrown open by January end or the first week of February. "We don't want to do a patch up job. Once it is done, it should continue for a long time. I am personally monitoring the process. The structure will get a facelift too," said Lotlikar.

‘No question of change in leadership’

Times of India | 8 hours ago | 17-11-2022 | 11:47 pm

Times of India

8 hours ago | 17-11-2022 | 11:47 pm

Panaji: Revenue minister Atanasio Monserrate said on Thursday that there’s no question of a change of leadership in Goa, and that CM Pramod Sawant has got the mandate of the people. “He got a majority to form the government, he is our leader, and there is no question of change in leadership,” Monserrate said.Reacting to GFP president Vijai Sardesai’s statement that health minister Vishwajit Rane could be a good chief minister, Monserratre said, “Everyone is capable and not only one person. I am not capable of becoming chief minister.”Monserrate said that every state has a staff selection commission (SSC), and that Goa is the only state which does not have it. “What is wrong in having a SSC? It will have transparency in the recruitment process,” he said.

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